I wish there were actual photos of how ‘jaali’ was done traditionally. Plus, it lacks concrete data proving that this works.
Or a few examples of the modern take on it.
India's lattice buildings cool without air con
41–50 of 87 posts
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#42When I was a child I grew up on one these old homes with Jaali design and as family grew we added in few extension to the house with modern look and feel. During peak summer you can feel the difference in room temperatures in old vs new section of the homes. Jaali design essentially helps in partially blocking sun, you still get the light inside the home and it magnifies the surface area to loose all the heat very easily.
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#43[deleted]
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#44Modern Indian housing in major Indian cities has done a complete 180 from these tried-and-tested architectural practices. The materials used seem to be deliberately chosen to maximize human misery. There's glass everywhere which, besides being impossible to keep clean in India's dusty summers, also retains heat and makes most housing unbearable without AC. Then there are the designs themselves. Faux wood is everywher…
My parents recently moved to a similar building with huge glass windows (different part of the world). They ended up installing black mesh roller shades, and pretty much need to keep them down half the year, to keep out the heat. For all intents and purposes, they now dwell in darkness. That kind of architecture basically creates new problems, rather than solves them.
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#45My favorite nature-inspired architechtural design concept is based on termite mounds, which have built-in cooling due to their structure, and whose design appears quite similar to this traditional lattice approach:
> "The secret of this balance of solid strength with porosity lies in a two-layered architecture. A dense core provides strength and stability, while a porous shell surrounding the core allows ventilation."
https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/architectural-secrets-of-...
This idea seems to be gaining traction, here's a new building in Vietnam designed on the termite mound concept which looks remarkably similar to the described traditional Indian lattices:
https://www.architecturaldigest.in/content/vietnam-brick-hom...
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Now, of course, the best design for staying cool would be an underground cave carved out of rock with no windows—-but is that really how we want to live? Adding light and some ventilation is a lot less energy intensive than cooling
Caves can get unbearably hot and humid here too.
Then you need to dig deeper
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Caves can get unbearably hot and humid here too.
Then you need to dig deeper
Not too deep because you know what's there.
I don't mean the balrog, rather infrastructure for water, sewage, etc. Granted that might not be the case on private property, and in India, but still. Where I live people sometimes cut underground power cables, water or nat gas.
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#48It's a neat technique, but there are some problems:
* Permanent architectural features to reduce sunlight absorption only make sense where its consistently hot, year round. In areas with cold winters, its not grate.
* Perforated walls offer very little privacy or protection from the environment, animals, or people.
* Cleaning and maintenance of these perforated walls requires more intricate and costly effort
* Susceptibility to damage from high winds
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#49The air con term reminds me of my time in Asia getting used to saying air con instead of AC.
AC is Alternating Current to some of us ;-)
Re: India's lattice buildings cool without air con
#50Modern Indian housing in major Indian cities has done a complete 180 from these tried-and-tested architectural practices. The materials used seem to be deliberately chosen to maximize human misery. There's glass everywhere which, besides being impossible to keep clean in India's dusty summers, also retains heat and makes most housing unbearable without AC. Then there are the designs themselves. Faux wood is everywher…
Canada makes similar mistakes. People imitate California designs in a Canadian climate and then find that the building is uncomfortable, and expensive to heat and cool. In many cases, builders will actually reuse complete designs without modification. Just madness.